2022 Undergraduate Student Conference on the Study of Religion

The very first Undergraduate Student Conference hosted jointly by the Department for the Study of Religion (DSR) and Religion Undergraduate Students' Association (RUSA) was a hybrid event, with the option of attending in person at Hart House or online via Zoom.

Students presented on work related to the study of religion during the conference, which was held on Saturday, April 22, 2022 from 12:00pm - 4:00pm.

→ News article: The DSR's inaugural Undergraduate Student Conference on the Study of Religion: An afternoon of research, community, and reflection

→ See photos

Time	Program
12:00pm - 12:15pm	Welcoming Remarks Professor Pamela Klassen, Chair and Graduate Chair, Department for the Study of Religion Mukti Patel, RUSA President
12:15pm - 1:00pm	Psychological and Social Considerations Katie Jones, Major in Religion: Religion, God, and a pandemic? Religion's impact on society during the COVID-19 Pandemic Kayla Klanreungsang, Specialist in Religion and Minor in German: The Abusive Hand of God Mahima Tiriunelveli Santhakumar, Specialist in Psychology: The Promotion of Prosocial Behaviour within the Mahabharata
1:00pm - 2:00pm	Disciplinary Perspectives Michael Berg, Double Major in Computer Science and Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations: Purification of Cursed Land: The Breaking of the Heifer's Neck Noah Brook, Specialist in Religion: Waco: David Koresh could have been saved Owen Huisman, Specialist in Religion and Minor in Philosophy: Locating and Losing Lamanites: Epistemology, Genetics, and Digital Latter-day Saint Apologetics
2:00pm - 2:30pm	Break
2:30pm - 3:00pm	Reflections and Reforms within Islam Sarmad Zubair Khokhar, Double Major in Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations and Economics: Historicizing the Rise of the Ahl al-Hadith movement in South Asia Aqil Visram, Double Major in Islamic Studies and Economics, Minor in Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations: Perfection of Dispositions: Virtue, Pleasure and the Levels of the Self in Miskawayh, Ṭūsī and the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwān Al-Ṣafāʾ)
3:00pm - 3:50pm	Religion, Nature and Re-Enchantment Panel with Professor Alexander Hampton Audrey Miatello, Double Major in Religion and Book & Media Studies: Recovering from Anthropocentrism: Some Recommendations Zenon MacKinnon, Specialist in Philosophy: The Farmer or the Hiker: Anthropocentrism and Ecocentrism in Anglophone Nature Poetry from the 19th Century to Today Swamini Sagar, 1st Year: The Triumph of Rationality Over Religion: The Decline of a Participatory View of Reality in the Present Disenchanted World
3:50pm - 4:00pm	Closing Remarks Professor Simon Coleman, Professor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate Mukti Patel, RUSA President Professor Sarah Gallant, Assistant Professor and Undergraduate Student Conference Committee